The Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court – Hon. Ralph D. Gants – will be honored with the Boston Bar
Association’s Haskell Cohn Award for Distinguished Judicial Service. Recipients
of the Haskell Cohn award are members of the judiciary who have distinguished
themselves in a manner that calls for special recognition from the bar. The
Chief Justice will receive the award at a June 8th reception at the BBA Beacon
Street office.

Chief Justice Gants was appointed to the Supreme Judicial
Court in 2009 by Governor Deval Patrick, and became the Court’s thirty-seventh
Chief Justice in 2014. He served as co-chair of the Massachusetts Access to
Justice Commission from 2010 to 2015, and chaired the Standing Committee that
revised the Model Jury Instructions on Homicide in 2013.

Prior to joining
the SJC, Chief Justice Gants served as an Associate Justice of the Superior
Court, to which he was appointed in 1997 by Governor William Weld. In 2008, he
served as an Administrative Justice of the Superior Court's Business Litigation
Session. He chaired the Superior Court Rules Committee, and was a member of the
Supreme Judicial Court's Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil
Procedure and its Ad Hoc Advisory Committee to Study Canon 3B(9) of the Code of
Judicial Conduct.

“Chief Justice Gants has demonstrated time and again
not only his extraordinary knowledge of the law, but also his deeply-held belief
that investing in justice is critical for the judiciary to function as a
co-equal branch of government,” said Lisa Arrowood, President of the Boston Bar
Association.

Across the legal community, Chief Justice Gants is known
for his vocal support of adequate funding for both civil legal aid and the
Massachusetts courts system. During Walk to the Hill – the largest advocacy day
on Beacon Hill for civil legal aid – Chief Justice Gants frequently turns to
everyday items, such as a Charlie Card or a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, to put
the cost of legal aid in context.

“$17 million is less than the cost of
one subway ride with a Charlie ticket per Massachusetts resident per year. Not
per day, per year,” said Gants at the event in January. “$27 million is just
$4.00 per Massachusetts resident per year -- less than the cost of a round trip
ticket. All we are saying is, ‘Bring Charlie home.’"

The following month,
Chief Justice Gants spoke publicly – via an op-ed in the Boston Globe – on the
need to expand Housing Court statewide.

“Only 69 percent of
Massachusetts residents have access to a housing court; the remaining 31 percent
do not,” wrote Gants. “This unfairness must end.”

And in December, amid a
wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the wake of the San Bernardino shootings, Chief
Justice Gants visited the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center following
the midday prayer service to assure those in attendance that the state's justice
system would protect their rights.

"I am here to assure you that you do
not stand alone," he said, to applause. "You have a constitution and laws to
protect your right to practice your religion, to protect you from
discrimination…and to protect you from acts of violence that may be committed
against you because of your religion or your nation of origin."

The BBA created the award – through
a generous endowment from Mintz Levin – more than 40 years ago in honor of
Haskell Cohn, a founding partner of Mintz Levin and BBA President from
1969-1971. Cohn was known for caring deeply about the quality of the judiciary.
In the years prior to the creation of the Judicial Nominating Committee,
governors often turned to Haskell Cohn in his capacity as Chair of the Joint Bar
Committee for input on the judicial selection process.

The Boston Bar Association traces its origins to meetings convened by John Adams, who provided pro bono representation to the British soldiers prosecuted for the Boston Massacre and went on to become the nation’s second president. Its mission is to advance the highest standards of excellence for the legal profession, facilitate access to justice, serve the community at large and promote diversity and inclusion.